Tag Archives: Mass Transit

Reinventing Los Angeles: Water and Transport

Los Angeles City Hall. Photo by Jimbolaya

Los Angeles City Hall. Photo by Jimbolaya

Earlier today I saw a Facebook post warning about traffic jams on our freeways as a result of a messy oil tanker truck fire.

I then went to sigalert.com to verify this information and I realized I hadn’t gone to this site since I gave up my car in June. There was no need for it; bicyclists are not usually subject to traffic jams, and certainly not traffic jams on freeways.

In the attached article, writer Jeff Turrentine remarks on his culture shock moving from Brooklyn to L.A., and on the overwhelming insertion of automobile life into almost every aspect of how we go about our days here in Los Angeles. I recently spent a month in New Orleans, and upon returning, I also was surprised at how easily I became aware of the tremendous assault on the environment (and Southern California is truly a beautiful environment) the “car” has. From noise, to pollution, to vast amounts of space necessary for roads and parking lots, etc., it’s almost as if we exist to serve this status quo of machinery.

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In addition to the Southern California water situation (in a nutshell, we don’t have any, it comes from elsewhere) and plans to make that more sustainable, he talks about the resurgence of projects in public transportation, biking and walking infrastructure and what has had to happen politically to get there. A lot of the programs, such as the extension of the Purple Line Subway to UCLA, have a completion date of 2035, when I, gulp, if I live that long, will be 80. But heck, I see people much older than that riding the subway. So I’m looking forward to it.

Michael Woo, my former L.A. City Councilperson and current dean of the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona said this about the reluctance of Inland Empire City Fathers and Mothers to the idea of public transit/density issues: “Many of them believed that low-density living, automobile dependence, a culture based on private backyards instead of public open spaces simply reflected the L.A. version of the American Dream. They were reluctant to embrace transit or density as part of the solution. To them it all just seemed like going backward.”

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That says a lot about why things evolved the way they did. Still, as even car and backyard lovers don’t like sitting in gridlock much at all, everyone realizes some things must change, and we’ve finally found that there’s political will here to do it (and that will extends into Republican Orange County, as well as that Inland Empire). The end result will be a much more livable Southern California, perhaps more garden-like, as the earlier boosters liked to claim.

Now if they could just do something about that pesky seismic problem. . .

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10 reasons to salute L.A.s transportation future — liveable city, here we come

Meredith Portnoff and Jim Arnold (Jimbolaya) in front of City Hall at CicLAvia 2012.

Meredith Portnoff and Jim Arnold (Jimbolaya) in front of City Hall at CicLAvia 2012.

As I embark on my second car-free experiment – or maybe it’s car-light, seeing that I am driving to Santa Monica for some work-related meetings during it – it was heartening to see the Los Angeles Times put this slide show together on reasons to love L.A.’s promising transportation future.

I especially love the shout out for Union Station. Every time I’m walking down those halls I wish I had on my fedora and a nice broad shouldered double breasted suit – or some nice open-toed pumps, depending on the day. But I digress.

As for my car-free experiment, it’s a place in life I’ve been leaning to for quite a while. I actually have convinced myself that it’s perfectly reasonable to live the life I currently lead in Los Angeles without owning a car, and I’ve proved it on several previous car-free periods.

It’s cutting that cord finally (which would mean selling the car) which I haven’t quite been able to do.

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L.A. transport has certainly come a long way from the days when I first lived in the city, where the unreliable buses were part of the Southern California RTD (rapid transit district, or reason to drink, you take your pick). Since then, among other improvements, Metro has built subways and light rail, with more on the way, started their Metro Rapid bus routes, the Orange and Silver Line busways, etc. Although Angelenos will have a hard time believing it, our city has mass transit coverage right up there with New York and San Francisco.

Add to that walking, biking and the occasional cab, and it’s actually an option. I suppose it helps having grown up riding the bus, walking and biking. Those things I still do! Sometime in 2013, definitely.

Find the Walkscore where you live.

 

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Inland Empire seniors have nation’s second-worst access to public transit… and don’t try and cross a street, either, sucka

Inland Empire seniors have nation’s second-worst access to public transit, study says –

Inland Empire, from Julia Takes Pictures

Not that I was surprised to hear this, yet it is sad.

Makes you wonder what they were thinking when they planned the interurban sprawl of freeways and suburbs back in the 50s and 60s. That cars, no matter how many, would always be the solution. That internal combustion engines, no matter how polluting, would never exceed the capacity for the environment to clean itself from their toxins.

I suppose it must have seemed like nirvana at the time, all this cheap land away from from noise and problems of the city. Of course, now that nirvana is a nightmare.

As long as I’ve had a place in Palm Springs, we have been promised daily train service between the desert and Los Angeles. It’s been 10 years now, and so far it hasn’t happened. I, for one, am not holding my breath. Even though I’m moving back to the city from the desert, I still hope we see that one day as an option – not just for seniors, but for everyone.

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